Industry of the Ordinary

Industry of the Ordinary (IOTO) is a two-person conceptual art collaborative, made up of Chicago-based artists and educators Adam Brooks and Mathew Wilson.[1] Their work is usually performative or sculptural, often incorporating audience participation and interaction with the artists.[2]

About

Industry of the Ordinary document their projects at their website, where their manifesto states, "Through sculpture, text, photography, video, sound and performance, Industry of the Ordinary are dedicated to an exploration and celebration of the customary, the everyday, and the usual. Their emphasis is on challenging pejorative notions of the ordinary and, in doing so, moving beyond the quotidian."[3] Industry of the Ordinary formed in 2003. IOTO's work appears in diverse forms, including performances tailored for specific exhibitions and performance art openings, artist-driven interventions on the streets of cities throughout the US and internationally, and public works commissioned by the Nebraska State Historical Society,[1] the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE)[4] and the Billboard Art Project,[5] among others. They have shown work at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago,[6] the Chicago Cultural Center, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center,[7] and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Themes

Industry of the Ordinary's work deals with themes of faith, freedom, politics, youth culture, celebrity, competitive sports, sex and drinking.[8] They often employ collaborative strategies, as in their piece 39 Verbs, for which they commissioned fellow arts professionals to create 39 works inspired by arbitrarily assigned verbs taken from their previous works' titles.[9] This emphasis on collaboration subverts traditional conceptions of art creation as highly individualistic, calling into question the elitism of the institutional art world. Works like Celebrity and the Peculiar, an installation of oxygen tents suffused by humidifiers with various celebrity perfumes, question popular culture's obsession with notoriety and our individual attempts to identify with celebrities.[10] IOTO's preoccupation with public interaction and stated intention that their work be completed by the creative interpretation and engagement of the audience has led some critics to categorize their work within the umbrella of Relational Aesthetics.[11] Their work has also been linked to the Situationist International and Fluxus movements. Their public interventions, usually ephemeral and existing afterwards only in the form of documentary photographs, videos, or text, has also been compared to the Happenings of the 1960s. One piece, Re-Work (for Allan Kaprow, Marina Abramović and Philip-Lorca diCorcia), re-imagines Allan Kaprow's delegated performance, Work. In his original, Kaprow hired professional house painters to paint and re-paint the hallway of a gallery space. For their Re-Work at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, IOTO hired two sex workers to perform the same task while wearing their "professional" attire. Just as Kaprow's piece questioned the distinction of artist by contracting out the actual art-making process, IOTO's piece questions our assumptions about the nature of, and our subsequent judgements of, certain types of labor.[1]

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Industry of the Ordinary's mid-career retrospective, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, was shown at the Chicago Cultural Center from August 2012 to February 2013. It was an exhibition of many of their works to that point, as well as several new pieces and a series of commissioned performances and installations which occurred throughout the run of the show. One of the elements of the show, the Portrait Project, consisted of 71 portraits of Industry of the Ordinary, commissioned from 71 different artists in various media. Another piece, Everyone, was a projected, scrolling, crowd-sourced list attempting to name every professional artist in Chicago.[2] The show was well received, being accorded one of the spots on Newcity's Top Five Chicago Art Exhibitions of 2012.[12]

Selected exhibitions and performances

2013
Guns and Butter, UIS Gallery, Springfield, Illinois (solo show)[13]

2012
Industry of the Ordinary: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, mid-career survey, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois[4]
Memory Over Forgetting, Exposition Chicago opening night performance, Chicago, Illinois[14]
Foreign Affairs, Rapid Pulse International Performance Festival, Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (solo performance)[15]
Sight and Sound, Billboard Art Project, Richmond, Virginia[16]
Starving Artist, Chicago Artists' Coalition, Chicago, Illinois[17]
Evil is Interesting, Antena, Chicago, Illinois[18]
Arts and Crafts, Public House, Chicago, Illinois[19]

2011
Industry of the Ordinary, Watkins College of Art, Nashville, Tennessee (solo show)[20]
Wicker Park/Bucktown Mural Project, Chicago, Illinois (long-term installation)[21]
Whiskey and Kisses/Go-Betweens, MDW Fair, Chicago, Illinois[22]
Visual Phrasing, College of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, New Jersey[23]
Mash Flob, performance series at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois[24]
The Search, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, Illinois[25]
Hang In There, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, Illinois[26]
Work With Me, A+D Gallery, Chicago, Illinois[27]
Out of Site, public performance series organized by Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago, Illinois[28]

2010
History as Idea, Nebraska State Historical Society, 1% for Art Commission, Lincoln, Nebraska (permanent installation)[29]
Don’t Piss on Me and Tell Me It’s Raining, apexart, New York, New York[30]
ORD[i]NANCE, Urban Environment Office, London, England[31]
ACRE: Country in the City, Heaven Gallery, Chicago[32]

2009
Super Market, Northeastern Illinois University Gallery, Chicago (solo show)[33]

2008
12x12, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (solo show)[34]
Allan Kaprow–Art as Life, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles[35]
Journeys, Chicago Public Library Public Art Commission, Chicago, Illinois (permanent installation)[36]
Celebrity and The Peculiar, Gahlberg Gallery, College of DuPage, Illinois (solo show)[37]
gollark: What do you mean "stop potatOS command"?
gollark: oh, right, sure then.
gollark: PotatOS has a better antivirus that most antivirus programs.
gollark: Sure!
gollark: Provide code with a *specific, limited* set of functions through environments.

References
  1. Heartney, Eleanor (2012). Industry of the Ordinary: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi 2003-2013. Chicago: Chicago Cultural Center. pp. 96–101. ISBN 978-0-9852964-0-7.
  2. Cuddy, Alison. "Art and Industry: August 20-26". Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  3. Industry of the Ordinary. "Manifesto". Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  4. Gatziolis, Cindy. "Seeking the Art of the Ordinary". City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  5. Billboard Art Project. "Baton Rouge, LA Participating Artists". Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  6. MCA Chicago. "UBS 12 x 12 New Artists/New Work". Archived from the original on 4 July 2013. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  7. Hyde Park Art Center. "Exhibitions: Googling Ordinary". Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  8. MacKenzie, Duncan (2012). Industry of the Ordinary: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi 2003-2013. Chicago: Chicago Cultural Center. pp. 176–183. ISBN 978-0-9852964-0-7.
  9. Ruiz, Steve. "Minireview: Industry of the Ordinary @ Packer Schopf". Chicago Art Review. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  10. Molon, Dominic (2012). Industry of the Ordinary: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi 2003-2013. Chicago: Chicago Cultural Center. pp. 81–83. ISBN 978-0-9852964-0-7.
  11. Stabler, Bert. "Review: Industry of the Ordinary/Chicago Cultural Center". Newcity. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  12. Foumberg, Jason. "Newcity's Top 5 of Everything 2012: Art". Newcity. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  13. Henry, Ashley. "'Guns and butter' questions the ordinary". UIS Journal. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  14. Dluzen, Robin. "EXPO Chicago Report: The Message from Vernissage". NewCity Art. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  15. "Industry of the Ordinary". RAPID PULSE. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  16. "'Normal'". Billboard Art Project. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  17. "Starving Artist 2012". ArtSlant Chicago. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  18. "Evil is Interesting ::: Antena Gallery". Visual Art Network. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  19. Sudo, Chuck. "Pencil This In: Arts & Crafts At Public House". Chicagoist. Archived from the original on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  20. Nolan, Joe. "Industry of the Ordinary". Nashville Scene. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  21. "Orange Walls". Wicker Park/Bucktown Chamber of Commerce. Archived from the original on 2 September 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  22. Ruiz, Steve. "MDW, Part II". ArtSlant. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  23. "Visual Phrasing Art Exhibition To Open At College Of Saint Elizabeth Thursday, January 20, 2011". College of Saint Elizabeth. Archived from the original on 26 June 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  24. Ferro, Shaunacy. "Rolling Heads: How Industry of the Ordinary mash-flobbed the MCA". NewCity Art. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  25. "Jason Lazarus, Angel Otero take divergent paths". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  26. "Hang in There". Co-Prosperity Sphere. Archived from the original on 5 March 2012. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  27. "Work With Me: 5th Art + Design Faculty Exhibition". Columbia College Chicago. Archived from the original on 11 June 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  28. "Industry of the Ordinary | Out of Site". Out of Site Chicago. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  29. "Nebraska State Historical Society Headquarters". Nebraska Arts Council. Archived from the original on 4 July 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  30. "Don't Piss on Me and Tell Me It's Raining". apexart. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  31. "ORD[i]NANCE at The Pigeon Wing". ArtRabbit. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  32. Doble, Dave. "ACRE's 1st Annual Winter Benefit". Heaven Gallery. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  33. Weinberg, Lauren. "Collective bargains". Time Out Chicago. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  34. "UBS 12 x 12: New Artists/New Work: Industry of the Ordinary". Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  35. "Art Galleries Press Release, April 2008". Pitzer Art Galleries. Archived from the original on 26 June 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  36. "City of Chicago :: Branch Library Installations". City of Chicago. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  37. Gunn, Dan. "Review: Industry of the Ordinary/Gahlberg Gallery". NewCity Art. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
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